Learn not to ask yourself how you feel about things, but instead ask yourself if doing or not doing something is right for you. You may know that you need to do something, but you don’t feel like doing it at all. You can wish you felt like it, but as we discussed already, wishing does no good. You must live by principle and simply choose to do what you know is right. There may be a certain thing you want to do badly. It might be a purchase you want to make that you know is too expensive. Your feelings they don’t get to vote. They are too immature to vote and will never vote for what is best for you in the long run.
We don’t allow people to vote in political elections until they are eighteen because we assume they would be too immature to know what they were doing. Why not look at your emotions the same way? They have always been a part of you, but they are very immature. They are without wisdom and cannot be trusted to do the right thing, so just don’t let them vote. We mature but our emotions don’t, and if they are left unchecked, our lives will be a series of unfinished and disappointing ventures.
People frequently ask me how I feel about traveling so much in my ministry. I have simply learned to say, “I don’t ask myself.” If I asked myself too often, I would find that I don’t like it much and might be tempted to stop doing something I beleve God wants me to do. Someone asked me a few months ago if I was excited about an upcoming trip to Africa and I said, “I have something better than excitement: I am committed.” I didn’t feel excited about going because I’ve been there several times and I know how I will feel when I return home after being in an airplane for many hours. But I do know that I am called by God to help the people, and in order to do that I have to travel. So I am led not by excitement or the lack of it — I just go! I am fulfilled and satisfied in knowing that I have obeyed God and helped other people.
When traveling was new to me, it was very exciting, but most things we do frequently are no longer exciting to us. However, the loss of the emotion of excitement does not mean we are not supposed to do those things anymore.
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